A modern day Western adapted from Cormac McCarthy's
National Book Award-winning novel of 1992, which was
accurately transferred to film by Ted Tally's script.
It kept the same laconic cowboy dialogue from the book
intact but was reduced to under two hours from the
over three hour length by director Billy Bob Thornton,
the length the people from Miramax wanted it to be. It
was hard to tell if the film was missing anything
because of this deletion since I didn't read the book.
But there were too many scenes that failed to go
anywhere, making the film dull at times. For a slow
moving film, there was the contradiction of scenes
happening too fast to be developed and fully realized.
As a result "All the Pretty Horses" failed to be
engaging, despite how well it looked.

If the filmmaker was aiming for an epic, he sure
didn't get it in this sometimes elegaic film. What he
got is something that plays more like a slick magazine
photo shoot on the travails of being a cowboy, or as a
touristy travelogue of what the Old West was like, or
as a stylish film that can't find what it wants to say
and stumbles around with a prosaic story about
youthful aspirations. What it lacked was some
emotional kick, as the scenes where the cowboys show
off their spirited exuberance seemed more portentous
than not and just didn't jive with the unsure pace of
the film.

What caught my attention in a positive way was how
pretty the picturesque vistas were and how the film
gave off some good cowboy vibes about friendship and
loyalty and had some good cowboy lingo to go along
with all the pretty horses and with the hot-blooded
senorita played by Penélope Cruz, who gave the film an
attractive foreign star to hang its Hollywood cowboy
hat on.

The film opens in San Angelo, Texas, in 1949, where
John Grady Cole's (Matt Damon) grandfather has just
died, leaving the big-spread ranch John was born on to
his remarried mother. John's real dad has dropped out
of sight after leaving the ranch to his ex-wife. To
John's bitter disappointment, his mother is selling
the ranch to an oil company because she has no
interest in it or in him. Since the young man's entire
life experience is ranching and his future has just
gone up in a cloud of dust, he feels he has no choice
but to leave the area. He goes with his loyal sidekick
Lacey Rawlins (Henry Thomas) to Mexico to look for
ranch work, because that's where the pretty horses are
and he can fulfill his fantasy about being a real
cowboy there.

It becomes an on-the-trail film, with a love story
and a revenge story filling in the life of the
youthful cowboy drifters. The pardners motto is stated
by John Grady after they cross the Rio Grande and
enter Mexico: He tells the 'doubting' Lacey "stick or
quit." And, he further states: "How I was is how
I am, and all I know is to stick." Now that's some
wicked cowboy talk 'pardner!'

The first danger sign for the two cowboys comes by
way of meeting on the trail Jimmy Blevins (Lucas
Black), who says he is 16 and is running away from his
mean stepfather. They sense that his presence means
trouble. That he is riding a horse the cowboys think
is too good for him. I found him to be the most
interesting one in the film. He adds his childish
stubborness, volatility, homespun humor, tough
backbone, silly superstitions about thunder and brings
with him the hard-luck of someone who never had a
chance in this world. He gives this complacent film,
seemingly, so self-satisfied with its boring story, a
chance to become energized by his maverick portrayal.
When Blevens is onscreen, the shallowness of the story
doesn't seem to matter because his coming-of-age story
is better than John Grady's.

The kid somehow loses his pretty horse and gun, his
two most valuable possessions. He takes back his horse
and later takes back by force his gun from the Mexican
who stole it. The kid winds up in a Mexican jail for
murdering him. When the kid is out of the picture, the
story starts to drag. The film then turns its
attention to Matt Damon's coming-of-age story; he and
Lacey rode away from Blevins after he got back his
horse, realizing the kid is reckless and could take
them down with him. They ride aimlessly into Mexico
until they land jobs as ranch hands. John Grady
becomes a wild mustang tamer and a lover of the sexy
Alejandra (Penelope Cruz), the daughter of the wealthy
Mexican rancher (Blades) and horse breeder he works
for. He forms an awkward father-son relationship with
him, as he counsels the ranch owner on what horses to
breed (the irony being that the rancher accepts what
he says about horses, but rejects him for his
daughter).

Mexico becomes for John Grady a place of adventure
and romance; but, the romance never set off any sparks
between him and Cruz, even if it's love at first
sight, as they scope each other out and though the two
keep telling each other how much they are in love;
yet, in this case, seeing is believing...and I'm not
believing what I can't see.

The story plays like a routine melodrama, of the
aristocratic father and the protective aunt (Miriam
Colon) working to break up the romance to protect the
girl's honor. The law comes after the two cowboys for
being with Blevins, after the aunt and the ranch owner
rat them out to the authorities. They are confined
unfairly in a corrupt Mexican jail and abused by the
cruel police captain (Mechoso) who tortures Blevins
before taking him out to be shot, and they are
transferred to a slovenly penitentiary which held some
of the most unbelievable scenes yet. John Grady gets
into a staged knife fight in the prison mess hall with
a convict and there isn't a single prison guard in
sight, if you can believe that.

There might have been a good picture in this tale,
but it just never kicked in. Everything felt choppy
and not certain of the direction it was going in. The
star-crossed lovers had no depth or sense of urgency
in their lustful romance and the film spent so much
time trying to tie up all the loose ends about the
romance, and yet it had nothing much to say about it.
The revenge tale of going after the Mexican lawman who
did them wrong, was also thinly played out and had no
teeth in its emotional outbursts. Though the buddy
story was well-played out between Damon and Thomas, as
Damon showed that he could be expressive and wear his
changing feelings in a credible way. His problem was
even though he could physically do the cowboy role, I
was never convinced that he actually was one. But the
most disheartening thing about this film was how out
of whack it seemed, as the story had no staying power.
It kept going off the trail, until it looked more like
a Marlboro billboard commercial than an enriching
story of two decent young men living out their dream
to be cowboys. Something must have gotten lost in
adapting the book to film, because I couldn't find
where the heartfelt story was in all the
superficiality I was surrounded by. The real star of
this film was the landscape, I couldn't take my eyes
off it. I think Penélope Cruz can act (at least she
can in an Almodovar film), but in this film she's
around only as part of the beautiful scenery. I know
Matt Damon can act and he shows in this film that he
can let us look inside him, but I don't think he was
up to being the romantic lead. Overall the film lacked
a psychological breath to get us more involved in the
characters. The filmmaker only accomplished showing us
simple things, things we already knew, like Mexico's
justice system is corrupt and theTexas judicial system
is fair (Ummm!). After his harrowing experience in
Mexico, Matt Damon feels so comfortable with the Texas
judicial system that he has a heart-to-heart talk with
a kind-hearted judge (Dern). After seeing that, I
didn't know whether to laugh or cry.